Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Even crazier than you are

by digby

I think anyone who has read Atrios over the years pretty much knew that Little Tommy Friedman, 6 years old ™ would be the number one Wanker of the Decade. I'll let you read Atrios' post to see the full reason, but I thought I'd just add my own personal favorite Friedman wanks to the celebration.

No, the axis-of-evil idea isn't thought through -- but that's what I like about it. It says to these countries and their terrorist pals: ''We know what you're cooking in your bathtubs. We don't know exactly what we're going to do about it, but if you think we are going to just sit back and take another dose from you, you're wrong. Meet Don Rumsfeld -- he's even crazier than you are.''

There is a lot about the Bush team's foreign policy I don't like, but their willingness to restore our deterrence, and to be as crazy as some of our enemies, is one thing they have right.

"Do you think the shortest distance between two points is a straight line?"

If you answered "Yes," you would not be allowed to work in Iraq. You could go to Korea, Japan or Germany - but not Iraq. Only those who understand that in the Middle East the shortest distance between two points is never a straight line should be allowed to carry out U.S. policy there. . . .

Ok.

And this:

So here's how I feel: I feel as if the president is presenting us with a beautiful carved mahogany table — a big, bold, gutsy vision. But if you look underneath, you discover that this table has only one leg. His bold vision on Iraq is not supported by boldness in other areas. And so I am terribly worried that Mr. Bush has told us the right thing to do, but won't be able to do it right

Friedman is one of those Very Serious People who completely lost their shit after 9/11. That was when we found out that our country was run by panic artists, psychopaths and sophomoric starry-eyed dreamers. And Friedman stands somewhere in the middle of all of them. I think this Friedman column illustrates it nicely:

I have a confession to make. Right after 9/11, I was given a CD by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, which included its rendition of ''The Battle Hymn of the Republic.'' I put it in my car's CD player and played that song over and over, often singing along as I drove. It wasn't only the patriotism it evoked that stirred me, but the sense of national unity. That song was what the choir sang at the close of the memorial service at the National Cathedral right after 9/11. Even though that was such a wrenching moment for our nation, I look back on it now with a certain longing and nostalgia. For it was such a moment of American solidarity, with people rallying to people and everyone rallying to the president.

Yeah. That's healthy. Except for the smoking rubble and the ten years of war that followed, those were good times.